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Marshall, Thu, July 3, 08

By Ken Howells at 2008-07-03 19:44

Hot and clear. Two brown smoke layers in the distance a little above the marine layer; smoke from the fires in Big Sur and west of Santa Barbara.
Wind 0-5 ENE at Marshall at 10 AM. Launched T2 154 from lower SW in a lull. LZ almost soarable. Longer lulls at Marshall later, so 11:30 T2 launch was a little easier.

At 13:30 solid SW 5-10 most of the time. Able to launch the U2 160 from the top SSW. Got into a thermal near the windsock (good look at windsock!) and climbed to 4600 then 5300 as it drifted slowly NNE. Got to Crestline at 5000 and floated across the face to below Billboard. Snagged a developing core and got to 6000 after a few minutes.

A fire had broken out in the Mill Creek Ranger Station vicinity north of Yucaipa.

Dove for the LZ to land with the others. Turning to final my left wing dropped and the nose pointed down. I had to really wrench the glider right, keeping the bar in, to level out. Hardest control input on landing I've had to do in quite a while. Mid-day landing conditions.

Some other pilots were hanging around the LZ deciding how to get up the hill (we were done for the day) when two prospective HG students arrived to check things out and were willing to drive the pilot's vehicle back down. I trust good flights were had and good information given to the drivers.


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Thanks

By John W at Thu, 2008-07-03 19:58

Thanks for the writeup, Ken,

I'm past withdrawals with only one 25 minute flight in almost a month after bingeing back East. I'll settle for living vicariously through your writeups and pad the bill of the client that crushed my flying hopes today... I worked till 7, they went home at 3 ~~:A

Bummed to have missed what sounds like a good day, glad to read about it.

See everyone Sat.


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Great flight thanks to a couple of prospective student pilots

By chriswvv at Thu, 2008-07-03 21:20

Great flight. Crestline, Pine (topped out at 6510), Crestline, Marshall. Lots of lift, some tight cores but generally smooth. Chris Hall and I launched at 3:30 and got just over 1.5 hrs. Chris H. had to work it a bit over Regionals, scratching for 30 minutes or so to get back up to Cloud. I lucked out over Pine with a good one and drifted back on the spine to the next peak N of Pine. Lost of fun.

Thanks to Will and Mark for the ride up. Both are prospective HG students who happend to show up just at the right time. Chris H. and I felt obligated to give them the full tour of the facilities including the Crestline Launch ;).

Thanks again guys, hopefully we can return the favor some time.


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Newbies saved the Day (and a long hike back up in the heat!)

By dylgeah at Fri, 2008-07-04 09:29

I double the thanks to Mark and Will for showing up just when we were trying to figure out how to get the car back down!

And thanks to Chris Van Velden for doing all the driving...made me feel like a real princess ;)

My favorite flight in a while. We launched off Crestline at about 1530 in 15 kts and pretty smoothe. Straight up overhead about 200 feet above launch right away and I hung out waiting for Chris VV to launch. He got right up too and we took turns trading spines and looking for lift. He ventured out to pine and I didn't find the guts to follow him (only 7th flight after a 16 year hiatus.) I watched him work back behind billboard and back over Crestline, and although I was scratching down near 3000 and silently praising and cursing him all at the same time, I vowed to land after him (which I did by a few minutes.)

Anyway the lift wasn't strong, and like Chris said I worked hard between 3100 and 3300 feet at last chance for what seemed like 30 minutes before I caught an 600fpm ride up to about 3800 and then was able to work up to Marshall and slightly east before heading halfway out to the freeway and getting tired.

At 1715 the LZ winds were steady 7-10 and it was truly a pleasurable flight.

Enjoyed the chats and beer in the LZ and watching Dave A play with a new video camera mount.

Wish they were all like this.

Happy 4th everyone.

Chris Hall


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